Will Turkey EVER Join the EU?

Turkey is the European Union's oldest candidate member. Since 1999, the EU and Turkey have been in talks to allow the country to join and redefine the borders of Europe. 24 years on, and it still doesn't look like their accession is likely. Why? In this video, we cover what's stopping Turkey from joining the EU and whether anything is likely to change soon.

Support the Channel:

Socials:

Resources:
Source 2: GMF, Turkish Perceptions of the European Union
Source 3: Wikipedia, Accession of Turkey to the EU
Source 4: Euroobserver, Turkey will never be part of Europe
Source 5: Reuters, US Turkey EU Erdogan
Source 6: European Parliament, Turkey further from EU Values and Standards
Source 7: European Parliament, EU and Türkiyes History
Source 8: Macrons ‘Non’ to Enlargement

[EUMadeSimple]

The official spelling is Türkiye. Sorry for forgetting the Umlaut (dots) above the "u" in the video.

[amos_melkersson]

Thanks you guys so much for all the content you make! I find ut both entertaining and important that you exist, making the EU more available for us all.

[sanballioglan]

1:00 There is actually a small border between Azerbaijan and Turkey in Nakhichevan.

[irgendwer]

The EU needs to reform the voting systems and also ellaborate a way to curb rogue states within the EU that decide to go against its principles

[PradedaCech]

The "tiny 3% of landmass" is actually bigger than several EU member states by size and population (around 10-11 million). So Thracia by itself would not be the smallest member state by far. The economic and cultural heart of the country is based there.

[dannyatthebeach]

with the chaos Turkiye's membership has been causing in NATO already, I cannot imagine the EU wanting any part of that, especially not before its current leaders, like Erdogan, are out...

[ugurrr]

Cyprus (100% Asia geographically) is a member and Georgia (pretty Asian if not completely) is an official candidate now. This argument aged like a bottle of milk under the sun.

[cemcicek]

As a Turkish I want to say, we don't wanna join, and Eu never accepts us, I dont wanna see this topic anymore, I am tired of this.

[atatanriverdii]

As a Turk I don't think that Türkiye will be a member of the European Union, at least for the moment, especially if we examine the demographics of Türkiye this becomes more impossible. Türkiye is too European to be eastern, too eastern to be European, too southern to be northerly, too northern to be southerly. I mean, the fact that Türkiye is a geopolitically intercontinental country is also reflected in the demographics (I'm not saying this in a negative way), but I think that the Secularization Policies of the New Government, which is expected to come after the elections, will contribute to the positive course of relations with the European Union. As a result, I don't think my country can become a member of the European Union for now, but I can't say anything about the future.

[ObamaBinLaden]

As a kurd, thank you for the informative video. There are many reasons why Turkey cannot be accepted into the EU. Socio-cultural structure of Turks, refugee problem, religion, negativities with Europe etc. for reasons such as. Other than that, the best thing could be in close relations with the European Union. A rapprochement like Canada and Norway would be nice. Turkey's entry into the EU will do nothing but bring harm to both sides.

[ft]

Technically Cyprus is located in Asia but it is often considered to be culturally and politically a part of Europe. France borders Latin American countries as well, also the UK and France have many overseas islands scattered around the world, therefore I don't think being on and only on Europe is a key matter. And I don't think Georgia or Armenia would be denied applications although they are fully or partially in Asia since they are Christian states with closer cultural ties to other EU states.

[StraightShot]

Bir türk olarak avrupa birligine girmeyi desteklemiyorum.
Avrupa birligi bize her zaman cifte Standard uyguladi.
Bu kriterlerin bir cogunu ne romanya ne de bulgaristan karsiliyordu.
Ayrica avrupa birligi kibrisi üye yaparak kendi yazdiklari kanuna uymadilar.
Biz avrupa ile dost ve müttefik olabiliriz ama bir kamusal birlik altinda bulusamayiz.
Türkiye artik yoluna türk birligi ile ilerlemeli.
Bu birligi güclendirip genisletmeliyiz.

[TheSwedishHistorian]

Ultimately it depends on if they can add benefit to the union without being overly disruptive and have the pros outweigh the cons. I think its pretty clear that they would be a net drain on the union with the amount of eu funds they would need and the political influence they sould have. also having the EU border syria isnt a great idea

[welogayguy]

If i was EU, i wouldnt want turkey with that kind of a goverment. But besides that, sure.

[francescot]

Mi entute subtenas la aliĝon de Turkio en la EU. 🇪🇺 Turkio estas certe parto de nia riĉa historio, ekde jarcentoj (mi pensas, ekzemple, pri la Bizanca Imperio kiu estis la Romia Imperio de la Oriento, kaj pri la Otomana Imperio). Tamen, mi konsentas kun vi, kiam vi diras ke kun la nuna registaro la aliĝo de Turkio estos tre malverŝajna.

[cagatayberkay]

I think the first "main challenge" does not really matter since Cyprus is part of the EU...

[M.BarisKapan]

As a Turk, I am happy that I did not join the European Union.

[codershindo]

As a Turk I don't want to join after so many things.

[Brnergulsen]

As a Turk, I don't want my country to be a part of the union who uses us as an open refugee camp. Even though it would be crucial for the economy. I just would not prefer being in a union who would decide everything for us.

[charlesdarwin]

cyprus is all in asia but seems to be in europe